Want the Boy, Beat Him Up
by Esellyn
Summary: Instead of Ino saving her from the bullies, Shino steps in. Instead of leaving a potential crush to turn into fangirlism, Sakura's parents insist upon an anti-fangirl talk. Fluffiness ensues
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N) Hiiiii! This fic is very fluffy, and adorable, and I love it. Have fun! One person was interested, but hey, what can compare to **_**Dinosaurs**_**? **

Sakura had been pinned down by bullies again. Calling her forehead girl, and pinkie, flicking her forehead. She curled in on herself, letting their words cut deeper than kunai.

"Stop," a quiet voice ordered.

"Eh? Why should we, bug boy?" Ami, the lead bully asked, sneering at the Aburame.

"You should stop. Why? Because I can summon my father in under a few seconds, and he will not appreciate you bullying one of my friends."

Sakura stared at Shino through her bangs. They were friends? Sure, she hadn't flinched when she'd found him playing with a little ladybug, and even helped him find it again when it flew away but did that really mean she was his friend? Maybe it was an Aburame thing, they made friends with anyone who didn't flinch away from them and their bugs.

Ami sneered at him, but backed off and walked away, followed by her two lackeys.

"Are you alright?" Shino asked, tilting his head at Sakura.

Sakura blinked up at him. "Y-yeah. Why did you tell them we were friends?"

Shino drew back minisculely. "Are we not? I apologize for assuming we were."

Sakura blinked, waving her hands in front of herself. "Nono, it's fine, just, no one's really defended me before."

Shino appeared to be considering. "Is that not what friends do? I will admit I am not well versed in making friends."

Sakura shrugged, curling in on herself just a bit more. "I dunno, you're kinda my first friend."

Shino's face went very carefully blank. "I had assumed you had other friends."

Sakura shook her head meekly. "Everyone teases me for my forehead."

Shino frowned slightly. "It is pointless to ostracise someone for simple physical appearances."

Sakura nodded slightly.

"I think you should tie your bangs out of your face," Shino said suddenly.

Sakura blinked at him.

"Why? Because by keeping it on show, you will show them that you like your forehead, and they will stop bullying you about it when you make it clear that it is not a sore spot. Why continue poking at the spot a bruise was but is no longer?"

Sakura patted herself down. Her parents had given her a ribbon a few days ago, something about tying her hair back, but she hadn't bothered using it. She was stopped by a hand on her knee, and an offered ribbon. It was a dark silky black, with little leaf bugs embroidered on it with iridescent green. Sakura's breath hitched in her throat as she took the ribbon. "It's really pretty."

Shino shifted slightly, seeming almost embarrassed. "My mother suggested I get you a ribbon as a gesture of friendship."

Sakura ran her fingers over the embroidery. "I haven't seen embroidery like this before."

Shino shifted again. "It is a hobby of mine. Outside of looking for rare bugs."

Sakura smiled. "It's pretty. Thank you." She moved her bangs out of her face, tying them back with the ribbon.

A corner of Shino's mouth quirked up, but it was gone just as quickly. "Would you like to find bugs with me?" He stood up, offering Sakura his hand.

Sakura smiled, taking his hand and pulling herself up. "Sure."

* * *

"And then we went and looked for bugs for the rest of the day!" Sakura chirped to her parents.

They exchanged amused glances. "I suppose it's about time to give her the talk," her mother said reluctantly.

Sakura looked confused. "What talk?"

"The anti-fangirl talk," her father said solemnly. "We decided when you were born that we would give you this talk the first time you showed any interest in boys."

Sakura looked between her parents, confused.

"Sakura honey, ninja boys don't like fangirls. What they do like, is strong Kunoichi. A simple statement for a lot of boys. Want the boy, beat him up. This is especially true for the Inuzuka clan, who like very strong women. Most other ninja clans, with the exception of the Akimichi, Nara, and Aburame clans, like it when their females can defend themselves very well. The Aburame clan is reclusive, so you're probably not going to mess up any sort of courting rituals, the Nara are lazy as all get out but hyper-intelligent. They like people who can keep up with them mentally. The Akimichi clan likes anyone who brings food." Her mother summarized.

"But," her father held up a hand. "Keep the hitting to a minimum outside of sparring, people don't really like it when they're beat up for little to no reason."

Sakura nodded sagely.

"Good girl. Now run along and get to bed so you aren't falling asleep in class tomorrow, alright?" Her mother said, smiling kindly.

Sakura nodded cheerfully, running upstairs.

"She's growing up so fast," Sakura's mother sighed.

* * *

Sakura proudly wore her new ribbon into class the next day, the other girls of the class cooing over the beautiful embroidery, even if it was of bugs. Ami, of course, made fun of it. Sakura was quick to defend it this time, insisting that it was a beautiful ribbon, and Ami was just making fun of it cause she was jealous. Once Sakura was done defending her ribbon, she plopped down in the seat next to Shino.

* * *

Rumors were flying by lunchtime. There was a lot of speculation that somehow Shino's parents and Sakura's parents had decided to engage the two, or something equally weird. They were seven for Kami's sake! They were not dating!

Sakura plopped down next to Shino with a huff. "They're all idiots."

Shino raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Apparently, the entire school thinks we're either dating or engaged. We're seven for Kami's sake!"

Shino thought about it for a bit, then hummed thoughtfully. "Clan heirs are often put into marriage contracts much earlier."

Sakura blinked at him. "You think it's a possibility."

Shino inclined his head. "We should not rule it out just yet."

Sakura sat back, flabbergasted. "Really?"

Shino nodded solemnly. "I would not be surprised."

"Eww, we're friends!" Sakura exclaimed, wrinkling her nose. "Why?"

"Because you have the potential to be a strong kunoichi, and you are not immediately driven off by my bugs. It is very possible my parents may see that as a match made in heaven."

Sakura shuddered a bit. "Parents are weird. You really think my parents would agree to that?"

Shino shrugged. "Maybe. Why? Because you would have more prestige, being the wife to be of the clan heir."

Sakura sighed, slumping back. "Let's just not talk about that now. We have lunches to eat, and cannot spend all of lunch debating the likelihood of us actually being engaged."

* * *

Six months later, Sakura stared at her parents in disbelief. "You actually did it." Then, "Geez, Shino and I were expecting this to happen months ago!"

Now it was her parent's turn to blink at her in confusion. "What?" Her mother managed.

Sakura smiled innocently. "Shino and I sorta guessed this might happen, cause there were a bunch of rumors flying around at school that Shino and I were either engaged or dating, and Shino admitted that it was actually pretty likely."

Her parents remained standing there, very confused as Sakura skipped past them and up to her room.

* * *

The next day Shino gave her another ribbon, this one embroidered with tiny praying mantis in a vivid iridescent purple. "An apology for my parents," he said at her confused glance.

Sakura waved it off. "My parents accepted it, they just as much to blame."

She tied the ribbon around her head anyway, tying the first one around her leg. She smiled at him, and Shino decided that maybe, just maybe, the engagement would actually work out. They didn't usually, but this one just might.

Of course, it was all around the school by lunch. But really, did anyone really think otherwise?

* * *

The second ribbon joined the first on her leg on her eighth birthday and a black ribbon embroidered with iridescent blue flies tied her hair back. Sakura also decided that her parents had joined the 'Sakura and Shino are a match made in heaven' train. She was glad that Shino had picked out thread and fabric that was shinobi quality, which basically meant the fabric and thread would last forever. Any basic civilian ribbon would've been worn down by now, but the headband Shino had given her nearly a year ago was still about the same as when he first gave it to her.

Sakura sighed, watching her parents talk with Shino's. "Our parents are going to be the death of us."

Shino just nodded agreement, raising an eyebrow as the two women began looking over at them and cooing.

"Death of us I tell you," Sakura muttered.

**(A/N) I think it's a cute ship. And I like Sakura when she's not being a fangirl. **


	2. Chapter 2

**(A/N) Guest: Pfft, duh she wasn't ever a fangirl, this was designed for the intention that she wouldn't ever be one, not fixing a problem already there. It's preventing fangirlism, not cutting it off. And your ship opinions are your own. **

"Almost got it," Sakura whispered, before slamming the butterfly net down over the flower. "Ha! Caught it!"

Her and Shino peered down at the trapped butterfly. It was a very pretty shimmery yellow and black, with splashes of blue on the lower wings.

"A Swallowtail butterfly. If anything, I would say it is somehow mixed with a Blue Morpho butterfly."

Sakura already had a notebook out and was sketching the butterfly, finishing quickly, and pulling out colored pencils to color it in. When she was done a moment later, she showed it to Shino, who inspected the drawing, then the butterfly, then back to the drawing.

"Looks just like it. We can draw it on the chart later," Shino decided.

Sakura released the butterfly, watching it fly away before she was abruptly crashed into, notebook and pencil flying out of her hands.

"Oh, sorry 'bout that!" The blond that had crashed into her apologized quickly. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Clearly," Sakura remarked dryly. "Well, watch where you're going next time, alright?"

And that was their first meeting with Naruto Uzumaki. Right after the blond left, a pair of Chuunin came though, asking them where Naruto had gone. Sakura helpfully pointed off to her left, the opposite direction Naruto had gone. Shino didn't stop her.

* * *

They started another school year, and due to a few dropouts, their classes had been rearranged, and Naruto Uzumaki was now in a class with Sakura and Shino. He, of course, made a beeline straight for them and sat down on the other side of Shino.

Sakura kept a discreet eye on him, realizing that their Sensei wasn't calling on him when he raised his hand. She exchanged significant glances with Shino, and they both decided then and there that Naruto now had a pair of tutors. Maybe he'd stop before he crashed into them next time.

* * *

"You want to what?" Naruto asked, stunned.

"Tutor you," Sakura said patiently.

"Seeing as our teachers are clearly incompetent." Shino agreed.

Naruto just blinked at them. "Really?"

Sakura gave him a deadpan stare. "Yes. Really."

Shino pulled out his textbook and took Naruto's from his hand. "I will be comparing yours and mine. Why? Because I worry that they sunk low enough to sabotage your education to that severe of a degree."

Sakura grinned, a fist held at the ready. "I'm finding out your learning style! I have the fun job!"

Naruto shuddered and backed up a bit. "It's not gonna hurt too much, right?"

Sakura smiled sweetly. "Probably not!"

Naruto shuddered again but followed her to the side, where an academy training field was located.

Shino settled underneath a tree, scanning both his, and Naruto's textbooks. They were very different and Naruto's had clearly been heavily edited to have incorrect dates and names. Shino wasn't sure how this got past the Hokage, but no longer. He'd have to speak to Sakura after she was finished testing Naruto's learning style. For now, he would purchase a new set of books for Naruto, giving an excuse about loose termites. It certainly wasn't out of place, as Aburame termites were notoriously hard to control. The only thing that would've been more believable was an Uchiha coming in for new books because they accidentally lit their old ones on fire with a Katon jutsu. Shino did, in fact, feed Naruto's old books to the termites, so it was technically true.

* * *

The Hokage was rather worried, and a bit irritated when Shino delivered the only remaining one of Naruto's original textbooks, highlighted in very pretty colors where it was incorrect. Sakura may have had a bit too much fun color-coding it. He had known she was meticulous, and he was prone to it as well, but this was a bit overkill.

Last Shino heard the book guy that had sold Naruto the textbook was probably somewhere near the Kumo border. Whether he was living there or buried there, Shino did not know.

A weapon seller quickly followed, then a couple of grocery shop owners, then a couple more grocery shop owners, until Shino was relatively sure that at least half of the shops in Konoha were owned and manned by off duty ANBU and a few retired shinobi.

Naruto was, of course, a bit confused when the prices at stores dropped abruptly but didn't question it. The Hokage told him not to worry, so he didn't.

Naruto's birthday was up next, Shino got him a brand new quality set of both kunai and shuriken and Sakura picked her old hobby back up, crocheting Naruto a pair of orange socks. He started crying when they gave him their gifts, and the two simultaneously realized that this was probably the first time anyone had given him a gift or even done anything except try and beat him up or kill him on his birthday.

After five attempts to vandalize the apartment, burn it down, and/or possibly kill Naruto, everyone involved was oh so done with it. They quickly relocated to the Aburame compound and finished there.

"That was a really good cake," Naruto said happily, leaning back and patting his stomach.

Sakura's mother smiled. "I'm glad you think so."

"And it was orange," Naruto sighed, expression telling of his absolute bliss. "How great is that?"

"Sakura said you like orange, so I made it orange," Sakura's mother was well and truly amused, and thought that she liked the boy. He was very sweet, despite what he held. He would be a good friend for her precious Sakura-chan.

"Come on Naruto, Shino pulled out some of his mom's craft stuff," Sakura chirped, pulling him off of the couch. "Don't you sew or something?"

Naruto let himself be pulled deeper into the compound. "Yeah, why?"

"Cause, I just said that Shino pulled out some of his mom's craft stuff! They don't have any crochet hooks though, so I'm making bracelets with some of the yarn and beads."

Naruto blinked at the veritable mountain of fabric, Shino attempting to organize it by color. "That's a lot of fabric."

"You don't say," Sakura said sarcastically, laughing.

* * *

Later that night, while the three kids were sitting in a mess of yarn, fabric, and embroidery thread, Mebuki, Sakura's mother, looked out of the window to see a smoke cloud rising into the air.

"Stay here, I'm going to go check something out," Mebuki told her husband. She may have been retired since she got pregnant with Sakura, same with her husband, but she had been a chuunin, and still remembered a lot of her old training. Including leaping over rooftops. That was kind of an ingrained skill though.

She stopped in front of Naruto's old apartment. It was little more than rubble and ash now, and even sifting through the rubble didn't bring up any of Naruto's things.

She traveled back to the Aburame compound over the rooftops, and Shibi, Shino's father, let her in again.

"You saw the smoke."

Mebuki nodded. "It was Naruto's apartment."

Shibi nodded. "I had assumed as much. If you so wish, I open my house for the night."

Mebuki nodded. "Thank you. We appreciate it."

* * *

Everyone just had a sleepover that night at the Aburame compound. It was kinda late, and no one really wanted to fight their way through the crowds mourning and/or celebrating the attack of the Kyuubi 8 years ago.

"I really can't," Naruto argued. "I can't ask you to do that. I'll just get another apartment from the old man."

Sakura sighed. "We're not talking you out of this one, are we."

Naruto shook his head.

Shino sighed minutely. "We haven't been able to talk you out of something ever. Why? Because you are exceedingly stubborn."

"Well," Sakura sighed again. "When my mother brings over meals, don't refuse them or Kami help you, she will literally force them down your throat. She was a chuunin, she can, and will do it."

Naruto nodded meekly. He'd learned that the hard way a few days ago when despite his vehement protests, the lunch that Sakura's mom had apparently made for him, ended up in his backpack anyway. Sakura had bullied him into eating it. On the plus side, his new socks were really warm, if a bit oversized. Sakura had said it was so he could grow, and they would still fit him.

Sakura smiled, reluctantly turning away at Shino's hand on her shoulder. "See you tomorrow Naruto."

"See you tomorrow," Naruto agreed. He waved to them as he left, making a beeline right for Hokage tower.

He was stopped three-quarters of the way there by an old man with a bandaged face.

"Naruto Uzumaki. The Hokage has already selected a place for you. Come with me."

**(AN) *evil grin* Also, poll, go see!**


	3. Chapter 3

**(A/N) *grins* You were so mad at me, I was so proud of myself! First cliffhanger, and it worked!**

Sakura and Shino didn't worry a massive amount when Naruto didn't show up to class the next day, assuming he was probably sick or settling in. They continued through their day, figuring they would see him again in a few days. They both knew that if they caught whatever bug Naruto had, he'd probably never forgive himself, and he'd probably turn away any help.

* * *

Three weeks later and no sign of him, and they were ready to go to the Hokage.

They managed to prod their parents into going for them, and their parents just said that the Hokage knew, and was looking for him. That implied he wasn't having any success. He'd told their parents not to worry too much, and that he'd find the boy. He had his ANBU searching for him, they'd find him.

* * *

And they did. Nearly two months later. The Hokage brought Naruto to Shino's house, where Sakura was sleeping over again, and turned him over to them, Shibi handing over completed paperwork for adoption.

Sakura smiled, opening her arms for a hug. To her surprise, Naruto flinched away, avoiding her gaze. She stopped, glancing uncertainly at Shino. He shrugged slightly, and Sakura turned back to Naruto.

"Are you okay, Naruto?" When he didn't respond, Sakura and Shino both looked to the Hokage in confusion.

"As of right now, all he will respond to is Kishin. Try and see if you can get him responding to Naruto again," the Hokage said gently.

Shino frowned minutely. "Kishin means demon."

Naruto flinched again, twitching like he wanted to hide.

Sakura looked worried. "Naru, er Kishin, I'll show you to where you can sleep." She turned a walked down the hall, trusting Naruto to follow her. He did, and she pointed into the guest room, with its perfectly made bed. She guessed he probably didn't want to sleep in a room with Shino, despite the bed available for him there. Everyone else could deal with it for one night, besides there were two beds, on opposite sides of the room. Also, they were 8. Well, Shino was turning 9 soon, but still.

No one protested to Sakura taking the second bed in Shino's room, realizing that it was the best course to allow Naruto to sleep in his own room for now.

They didn't go to school in the morning, not wanting to stress Naruto even further. Best they give him a day or two to readjust.

* * *

"Hot cocoa, Naruto?" Sakura offered the mug to Naruto, and he flinched away from her. She sighed, taking a sip of it herself. "See? Safe."

Finally, he took the mug from her, wrapping his fingers around it. Sakura sat down on the couch opposite him, curling up with some orange yarn, a crochet hook, and her own mug.

After a couple of hours, Sakura sat up with a triumphant cry, startling Naruto badly enough that the empty mug he'd been staring at for the last two hours fell out of his hands and to the ground, shattering all over Naruto's feet. He stared at his feet, at the ceramic shards embedded in his foot, at the red blood welling up.

Sakura dropped the sock she'd just finished, coating her fingertips in chakra as her parents had taught her in order to safely collect the shards. They flew to her fingers, attracted to the chakra. The shards even dislodging themselves from Naruto's feet. Sakura quickly disposed of the shards, coming back and trying to remember the healing jutsu scroll she'd read a month or so ago. Oh, it detailed using just yin chakra, Sakura could do that.

Her hand began to glow a soft green, and she moved it to Naruto's foot, trying to ignore the flinch he gave. Her chakra washed over the injuries, and she pictured the cuts knitting themselves together and disappearing, leaving smooth skin behind. She cut chakra to the jutsu, and nearly fell over at the chakra cost. She hadn't used it before, and it was just a bit much for her reserves to handle. She wasn't going to pass out, probably, but she'd be weak for a while.

"Th-thank you," the words were rushed, and Sakura almost missed them.

"Oh, it's fine." Sakura dismissed, dizzily getting to her feet. "Oh, these socks are for you, I figured you probably lost the first pair, so I might as well make you a new pair."

* * *

Just a month after Naruto got back, it was Shino's 9th birthday. Sakura gave him a pair of crocheted grey socks, and they excused Naruto, as he was still recovering. He was doing much better, could actually sort of interact with the other people in the class, was reacting solely to the name Naruto, and had mostly warmed up to Sakura and Shino, but still refused to speak about the two months he'd been missing. Neither Sakura nor Shino pushed it, figuring he'd tell them in his own time.

* * *

Sakura's birthday was next, Naruto feeling much better, and reacting more normally. He froze up less often and was accepting of more gestures of friendship. Shino gave her an armband with an iridescent red centipede. Naruto had evidently been going back to his old hobby, as he gave her a red jacket with white lining and the white circle of her family crest sewn onto the shoulders. She'd hugged him on an impulse, and to her surprise, he actually returned it, tentatively wrapping his arms around her waist.

* * *

They celebrated Naruto's birthday a couple of days early, remembering the disaster that had been last year's birthday. Sakura gave him a neon orange sweater, clearly very proud of herself, while Shino gave him a book on the Uzumaki clan. Naruto had been confused for all of twenty seconds, then Sakura reminded him that his last name was Uzumaki.

* * *

Sasuke didn't come to class one day, and Sakura decided to drag Naruto and Shino to find him after class.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei?" Sakura asked politely. "Where is Sasuke?"

"Oh, he fell out of a tree yesterday and is currently in the hospital. I can accompany you if you wish to see him."

Sakura nodded. "Yes, please. How bad were the injuries?"

Iruka smiled. "Fortunately, just a bump on the head. A few memories are missing, and a couple others are jumbled up. So, excuse him if he acts a bit oddly, or doesn't remember who you are. Or perhaps mix you up with someone else."

Naruto shrunk behind Sakura, almost managing to hide behind her barely larger frame.

Shino nodded. "We will be understanding. Why? Because concussions and memory loss are not things to be taken lightly."

Iruka nodded, smiling. "Come on then, I'm sure he will appreciate the visit."

Sakura tugged Naruto along behind her. "Come on, he's not going to mistake you for a fox. He's got memory loss, he's not blind. If anything, he'll mistake you for Ino!"

Naruto blinked. "He wouldn't. Like you said, he's not blind."

Sakura hummed. "You never know, he could mistake you for her, and think your one of his fangirls."

Naruto wrinkled his nose. "You're insane. I'm a boy."

"Oh, I know!" Sakura chirped. "Just saying!"

Naruto stuck his tongue out at her.

* * *

The nurse helpfully pointed them to Sasuke's room, not seeing Naruto due to some careful positioning of Iruka, Sakura, Shino, a to-go container of proper food not from the hospital, a bouquet of flowers they'd picked up, and Naruto himself. They managed to get into the room without any problems, luckily, and even luckier, Sasuke was awake and reading a book. Presumably one Iruka had brought, as it was a history book.

Sasuke looked up from his book, mild confusion on his face as he stared at them. "Iruka-sensei, er, weren't you Shino's girlfriend?"

Sakura snickered. "Technically, we're engaged, but sure."

Shino was almost glowing. He'd been remembered! And not by a nickname, or a relation to someone else.

Sasuke frowned minutely at Naruto. "Er, your name?"

"N-Naruto," he replied softly, hiding half behind Sakura.

Sasuke tilted his head. "Kaa-san kept lamenting about not being able to adopt you."

Naruto blinked at him. "Huh?"

"My Kaa-san, Mikoto Uchiha," Sasuke said slowly. "She complained to Tou-san about people on the council keeping her from adopting you."

Naruto blinked a few more times. "You didn't mention this before."

Sasuke shrugged. "Didn't remember. And don't remember not telling you. Are you sure I didn't tell you? I could've sworn we were friends."

Sakura tilted her head. "You were a bit of a loner, I don't believe you were particularly friends with anyone."

Sasuke looked confused. "No? But Aniki kept telling me to go make friends."

The three blinked at him. "When have you cared about what your brother said?" Shino asked, tilting his head slightly.

Sasuke was very confused now. "Why wouldn't I?"

"He killed your clan," Sakura said bluntly.

Sasuke blinked. "No, he didn't. The guy in the orange mask did. Aniki just got his girlfriend and Kaa-san and Tou-san."

Now everyone was confused.

"Sasuke, you remembered something new about the massacre?" Iruka asked urgently.

Sasuke shrugged. "I don't know, did I?"

**(A/N) I'm being self indulgent after the Naruto incident, sue me. Go see profile for poll, alright?**


	4. Chapter 4

**(A/N) Friends! And graduation.**

"You never mentioned a man in an orange mask before."

"Well, I don't know why, he was all swirly, and things went through him like he was a genjutsu, but then he killed them, and he clearly wasn't."

Iruka stood. "You four, don't move for a moment. I'm going to get Inoichi. Don't move, alright?"

Sakura, Shino, and Naruto nodded. Sasuke was still confused but nodded as well.

Iruka left, and there was silence for a couple of moments.

"So, will you be my friends now?" Sasuke asked out of the blue.

Sakura shrugged. "I don't see why not, Shino? Naruto?"

Shino nodded. "It would not be unwelcome."

Naruto nodded tentatively, somehow ending up next to Sasuke's bed with his hand out. Sasuke shook it with a slight smile. Sakura grinned, bright and happy. Shino simply adjusted his glasses, but Sakura could tell he was happy. If Naruto was fine with him, they were quite on board with being friends.

"Oh, Sasuke, do you remember your fangirls?" Sakura asked, a slightly mischievous smirk on her face.

Sasuke tilted his head. "Not my own, why?"

"Oh, no reason, I'll tell you later. For now, I believe those are Iruka-sensei's footsteps."

Shino tilted his head. "She is correct. Why? Because my Kikaichu remember footsteps. Those are Iruka-sensei's footsteps."

"Very good Shino," Iruka praises, walking into the room, followed by a blond man with long hair.

"That's Ino's dad," Sakura told Sasuke.

Sasuke nodded. "Okay. Who's Ino?"

"A fangirl," Naruto said solemnly. "Blond, pale blue eyes."

Sasuke's face remained confused, so Naruto just shrugged and retreated back behind Sakura when Inoichi came to stand next to Sasuke.

"Alright you three, time to go. He'll be out in a few days, and he may come back to school, you can see him then. Or come by to see him some other time. I know you have homework, so shoo, and go do it." Iruka shooed them out of the door, closing it behind himself. "I have paperwork."

"You always have paperwork," Sakura pointed out dryly.

"Don't we all," Iruka muttered, breaking off from them as they exited the hospital.

"Ours is just renamed homework," Naruto said, giggling slightly.

"Come on, Sakura's parents offered to spar with us," Shino said. "Why? Because they believe that it will assist us."

"And it will," Sakura agreed. "They were chuunin before they had me."

Iruka smiled. "Have fun with that." He disappeared in a shunshin, and Sakura puffed out her cheeks.

"I want to learn that jutsu."

"When we're genin," Shino said.

Sakura sighed. "But that's so far away."

"Just three years," Naruto offered.

"Alright, as this is a new school year, we'll be introducing a few new things this year at the request of the Hokage. It is an attempt to adapt the curriculum for other types of learners," Iruka said pointing to the board. "First, we will begin a series of games, if you protest, I will take you aside during the games for a nice lecture on the intent of that day's game instead. I am happy either way."

Naruto stared at the board. "Isn't those variations of the games we played as children?"

"Look," Shino said. "They are intended for strategy. We are given situations, and we are to fight the game with strategy."

Sakura hummed in agreement. "You're right. They are strategy games."

Sasuke frowned slightly. "A weird way to learn strategy."

"Is it? Would you learn strategy better by doing it, and figuring out strategies on your own, or a lecture?"

"Hands-on," Naruto said immediately.

"See?" Sakura said. "Don't think it's beneath you, I'm willing to bet Naruto will beat you in most of these games."

Naruto looked shocked. "Why?"

"Pranks, they require a lot of planning, right?"

Comprehension dawned on his face. "Ohh! I get it now!"

* * *

The games were indeed dominated mostly by Naruto, with Shikamaru coming out on top when he was feeling particularly driven that day. Sakura tried, she just didn't quite have the same knack for battlefield planning that Naruto did.

The games didn't stop, they just got larger over the years, culminating in team games in their last year. One team and their army, vs another team and their army. Sometimes, there were even chaotic three-way battles.

* * *

"Finally, graduation!" Sakura declared, throwing her arms in the air.

Shino adjusted his glasses. "We were going to graduate eventually."

"But now it's happened," Naruto pointed out.

Sakura smiled happily, leaning down to pick a couple of the Bird of Paradise flowers blooming near their feet. Most other flowers were dead around now, and she was glad for the extra happiness the flowers meant.

"Were we going to exchange gifts?" Sasuke asked, amused as they passed the spot they were going to stop at to exchange gifts.

Sakura looked around quickly and giggled. "Oops! We almost walked past the spot!"

Shino shook his head slightly and followed Sakura down to the ledge overlooking the river.

"Oh, it's beautiful!' Sakura said happily, holding the dress up to herself as she pulled it out of the box. "So that's where that one dress went, you dissected it for a pattern."

Naruto chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "Hehe, yeah, sorry about that. It was Shino's idea."

Sakura waved it off. "It's fine. Just a single dress." Besides, this one was much prettier and much more resilient. It was black with embroidered red Kikaichu that faded to white as it moved up the dress to form a circle on the front and back. The kikaichu on the bottom formed Uzumaki swirls and mini Uchiha fans, and a couple of sakura blossoms. It was fairly heavy, and Sakura turned to Naruto. "Did you reinforce it or something?"

Naruto nodded sheepishly. "Mesh armor."

"Very pretty," Sasuke agreed, handing her a second box.

Sakura opened it, smiling at the wooden bracers. "This is why you casted our arms."

Sasuke nodded, smiling proudly at the bracers. "They should fit perfectly."

Sakura slid them on, noting that yes, the bracers fit perfectly.

"It's Sakura wood," Sasuke said. "They should be able to take a kunai easily, the Hokage helped me enforce it with seals when I asked."

Sakura nodded, running her fingers over the sakura blossoms carved into the wood. She handed one of the boxes she had to Shino, one to Naruto, and one to Sasuke. "Here you go!"

Shino opened his, pulling out a long sweater with a high collar done in forest green, and lined with grey fabric. "Thank you, Sakura, Naruto."

Naruto beamed, holding up his navy blue sweater. "I'll line this with orange!"

"I wouldn't expect anything else," Sakura replied, smiling happily.

Sasuke held up his, Something all three had worked on, a navy blue sweater lined with black fabric and the Uchiha symbol on the back. Around the neckline, bottom, and cuffs of the sleeves were small Uzumaki spirals, Sakura blossoms, and Kikaichu in orange, light pink, and silver, respectively. Sasuke slipped his on immediately, dislodging his headband, and forcing him to fix it. Sakura was the only one who hadn't worn it around her forehead, instead placing it around her neck. She was wearing an orange ribbon Naruto had made her right now, the ones Shino had given her were tied above her kunai pouch.

Shino didn't put his on, but Sakura had made it to go under his big coat, so it was sensible. Naruto exchanged the jacket he had been wearing for the crocheted one.

Shino handed Naruto a box, and Naruto happily opened it to show a pair of black pants and shirt embroidered with Orange Kikaichu that were arranged in Uzumaki swirls, Uchiha symbols, and Sakura blossoms.

Sasuke gave Naruto and Shino boxes, and they opened them quickly, showing bracers with their clan symbols carved into them. They both slid them on, both sets disappearing into the sleeves of their jackets.

"Thanks," Naruto said, grinning.

Shino nodded. "Thank you as well."

Sakura beamed at her boys.

**(A/N) Aww, isn't that cute. SDC has it's replacement poll up, so go see that. The top three options will be what replaces its update spots, so, yeah. **


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N) It's Sakura's birthday today! So, you get an extra update of this. Be happy! This jumps a bit, okay more then a bit, but yeah. **

"Team 7, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki."

Sakura smiled slightly. Figured, the designated Rookie of the Year, and Dead last. And her, Top Kunoichi. Naruto probably would have been higher, but his grades had never quite recovered from his two month absence. Also, they were kinda the last three options, Shino, Kiba, and Hinata would form a tracking team, Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji were a given, and the other civilian kids were tossed into teams together. Sakura was basically a clan kid due to her marriage contract with Shino, and as such, was mostly treated like one.

The other teams read out as expected, and Iruka dismissed them for lunch.

As was normal, Sasuke and Naruto stuck close to her and just a little behind, with Shino by her side. This time, Hinata and Kiba joined them, Hinata blushing and stuttering when exposed to Naruto, and Kiba actually being quiet for once in his life, Akamaru tucked securely in his hood.

They ended up sitting on a ledge overlooking a river. Kiba sat next to Hinata, who had Naruto on her other side, Naruto having Sasuke next to him, then Sakura, and finally Shino.

Sakura, having designated herself as the lunch box carrier, handed out lunch boxes to Shino, Sasuke, and Naruto. Hinata and Kiba pulled out their own lunches.

They were back in the classroom before the specified time, as none of them were very prone to dawdling.

* * *

Apparently, their Sensei was prone to dawdling. And lots of it.

Everyone else had already left with their Jounin Sensei, but Team 7 was stuck waiting for their very late teacher.

"When he comes in that door," Sakura began. "I'm going to punch him."

"He's coming, I think," Naruto offered.

Sakura hopped up, standing next to the door, and clenching a fist.

Their silver-haired Jounin Sensei came in the door, only to be punched in the stomach by Sakura. He grunted, frowning disapprovingly at Sakura. "My first impression of you all is that you're violent."

"Darn right," Sakura interrupted him.

"Meet me on the roof," he finished, disappearing in a shunshin.

"He'd better teach us that, or I'm hunting down someone else to do it," Sakura deadpanned.

"If he was alive, I would've suggested my cousin," Sasuke muttered. "But noo, he just had to fall off a cliff and destroy his own body!"

Sasuke was a lot more vocal about his family and past, often complaining that his brother had promised to teach him something or other, and hadn't done it, or something else like that. Or complaining about one of his cousins.

* * *

They arrived a couple of minutes later, their sensei sitting nonchalantly on the railing and reading a book.

"Well, sensei? Won't you introduce yourself?" Sakura asked in a poisonously sweet tone.

"Hmm, well, my name is Kakashi Hatake, I have many likes, quite a few dislikes, not very many hobbies, and I haven't really thought about a dream for myself quite yet."

Sakura gave him a flat glare. "Sakura Haruno, until 16, anyway, I like my friends, I dislike you, I have a hobby of crochet, my dream is to reach S-class and still be a mother. If you try and stop me, you will die."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I like my friends and the Aburame clan, I dislike late people, my hobby is sewing, my dream is to Hokage and put a stop to someone's nonsense."

Sakura knew what he meant, Sasuke knew what he meant, Kakashi clearly did not, and probably thought it was some sort of store owner or something.

"Sasuke Uchiha, friends, you, woodworking, slap my brother and drag him back, ANBU captain under Naruto."

Kakashi seemed a bit confused if the quarter of his face visible was any indication. He recovered quickly though. "Alright, meet me at training ground 7 tomorrow at six."

"We'll be there at nine," Sakura said, smiling sweetly at him. "Just so you don't have to worry about us poor small children sitting there all alone."

He gave her a flat stare. "Six."

"Anything else?" Sasuke broke in impatiently.

"Don't eat breakfast, we don't want to throw it up, now do we?"

Sakura thought about it for a while, before a devious grin spread over her face. "Of course, Sensei," She chirped, her suddenly sweet smile fooling no one, least of all her teammates.

* * *

"We're disobeying sensei," Naruto said nervously.

"No, we aren't, we're not eating breakfast, we're eating a snack," Sakura countered. "So don't get your scarf in a twist."

"He didn't say we couldn't eat something after skipping breakfast, and we are taking advantage of it. Also, it was a suggestion, not an order," Sasuke agreed, his hands disappearing into his jacket sleeves as he finished his tomatoes.

* * *

Kakashi showed up an hour after they did, or, in other terms, three hours after he told them to meet up.

They'd moved onto stretching after they finished their snack, and as such, were all in assorted stretching positions. They straightened when they noticed Kakashi though.

"See? I was right, we should've come at 9," Sakura said triumphantly.

"It was only an hour," Sasuke said, shrugging.

"Cause I was being cautious," Naruto protested. "A cautious ninja is an alive ninja!"

"Very good Naruto," Kakashi praised. He pulled the bells out of his pocket, placing an alarm clock on a rock next to him. "You have until noon to get these bells."

Sakura nodded. "Alright."

Kakashi waited, but no questions popped up. He decided to nudge them a bit. "If you get a bell you pass. If not, you get sent back to the academy."

Sasuke nodded this time. "Okay."

Kakashi waited for the inevitable realization that he only had two bells. It didn't come.

"Are you going to say start?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi drooped inside. "Start," he said, slightly morosely.

Sakura grinned, equal parts glee and malice. She threw a round of kunai at him, before grabbing the boys and disappearing into the treetops. Kakashi neatly sidestepped the kunai, pulled out his book, and waited for them to attack him.

He was still there an hour later, waiting. He'd finished the book for the hundredth time and really thought the genin would've attacked him by now. He decided to go search for them. He spread out his senses, finding the genin apparently standing around waiting. Were they trying to test his patience?

He was on them in an instant, book out and open to the beginning again, and he fought them casually while he read his book. He didn't notice them driving him backward until his feet met nothing but air and he fell backward.

He landed at the bottom of the hole, a bit disgruntled, and very annoyed as his genin used that time to get away. They were working together, and that meant he had to pass them. And now he had to deal with genin. And ones that didn't like him at that. To be fair, a lot of people didn't like him. It was just that these ones would be annoying him day in and day out until they became chuunin.

Kakashi sighed, shunshining out of the pit.

* * *

In the end he tied Sakura to the post for no other reason then she was the instigator of 95% of what made him want to fail them. Unfortunately, as soon as he turned his back, and a couple of seconds before that, actually, the boys fed her part of their lunch. Why? Why couldn't they just not have teamwork and make him fail them? Oh well, time to scare them.

He shunshined in front of them, a minor genjutsu darkening the sky with occasional lightning flashes behind him. "You…" he paused for dramatic effect, "pass!"

"Told you," Sakura chirped immediately.

Kakashi debated stabbing her and pretending it was a training accident. Although, whatever clan kid she was engaged to would probably kill him for that, so it was probably a bad idea.

* * *

The next day, his genin came to practice without their headbands, and even though he raised an eyebrow at them, they just shrugged and ignored the hint. He ignored them for the rest of training, and decided that they could have the Tora mission tomorrow.

* * *

When they did have their headbands the next day, except with embroidered bugs on them, Kakashi raised an eyebrow, paying a bit more attention to his student's outfits. Sakura, the odd civilian girl, with pink hair cut in a short bob around her head, and a dress of all things. The attention to detail on the embroidery was impressive, each little kikaichu had all six little legs, and the fade to white was pretty impressive, along with the little Uzumaki spirals, Uchiha symbols, and a couple of flowers just visible if you looked at the bugs on the bottom. The dress was sleeveless for the most part, just covering her shoulders, putting the armband with the centipede on it on full display. The wooden bracers Kakashi knew came from Sasuke just barely hid fabric arm guards embroidered with butterflies. Based on the amount of embroidered bugs on her person, he'd say the comment about being a Haruno until 16 meant she was engaged to the Aburame clan heir. He was about her age, and it was known that she was friends with him.

Sensei's son was wearing black pants with orange embroidered kikaichu, and a navy blue crocheted sweater with a sewn patch with the Uzumaki crest on it.. He had similar bracers to Sakura, but with the Uzumaki crest carved in them. Other then that, he was mostly normal.

Sasuke was wearing a navy blue crocheted sweater and the Uchiha symbol on the back. Around the neckline, bottom, and cuffs of the sleeves were small Uzumaki spirals, Sakura blossoms, and Kikaichu in orange, light pink, and silver, respectively. Other then that and the headband, nothing was particularly something you couldn't find in a store.

Kakashi wondered how those would stand up to Tora's claws…

**(A/N) They'll hold up fiiine. So there's the bell test n stuff, next we have more fun! Happy Birthday Sakura, and have a great day. **


	6. Chapter 6

In the end, they stood up very well. Kakashi suspected they were made of shinobi quality supplies.

* * *

"That cat is evil," Naruto declared the next day before Kakashi deigned to gift them with his presence. Kakashi agreed with that statement.

"Yeah," Sakura agreed. "Sasuke, add eye protection to the grocery shopping list at some point, I do not want my eyes scratched out."

Sasuke nodded absently, carving out another sliver of wood from the chunk in his hand. It was beginning to resemble a sphere, with four indentations on one side that made Kakashi think he was carving a sharingan eye.

Kakashi eyed the flower that had popped up around Naruto, and decided a trip to the Hokage was in order before he graced them with his presence.

* * *

Kakashi stood in front of the Hokage. "Hokage-sama. I believe Naruto has Mokuton."

Hiruzen looked up sharply. "What makes you say that?"

"Flowers, they keep blooming around him when he's happy. I have been observing them in the morning, and each time, flowers bloom around them, even though it isn't near the flower season. Tenzo did, and still does, much the same thing. Mokuton reacts to emotions, particularly positive ones."

Hiruzen chewed on his pipe. This was a difficult situation indeed. "And you remember how Tenzo-kun learned Mokuton?"

Kakashi nodded. "If there's anything I'm missing, I can always ask him."

Hiruzen sighed. "Tell no one else. Just your team. I'm taking you off of missions for a few weeks to train him in this, and get his teammates stronger. They'll need to be in the Chuunin Exams, and I want them ready. I'll prepare a C-rank mission for you when you think they are ready."

Kakashi nodded gratefully. "Thank you, Hokage-sama." He disappeared in a shunshin, leaving leaves drifting to the ground and the barest puff of smoke.

Hiruzen sighed. Really, sometimes he wished his elite jounin would just walk out of the room. It would be so much easier.

* * *

Kakashi, satisfied by how late he was, deigned to make an appearance at the training field. Orange lilies bloomed at his feet, and he frowned at them. Maybe that was a bit mean. Really, hatred?

His genin stared at him from their stretching positions, lazily finished stretching, and stood before him.

"Another D-rank, oh esteemed sensei?" Sakura asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Something a bit more important," Kakashi said gravely. "Sit down." He walked around them, placing silencing seals around them, then layering the area in a genjutsu that meant this was occupied, so don't disturb them. Unless the village was on fire.

They watched him carefully as he sat back down in front of him. "What's this about, sensei?" Sasuke asked.

"Naruto, you may not know this, but you have a bloodline."

Naruto blinked at him. "What?"

"Mokuton, specifically," Kakashi added.

Sakura frowned minutely, plucking one of the Bird of Paradise flowers by her feet, and glancing at the orange lilies around Kakashi's. "The flowers. So they're part of a bloodline."

"A very powerful one that hasn't been seen since Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage," Sasuke agreed.

Naruto blinked, dumbfounded at the flower in Sakura's hand. "So that's why flowers keep blooming around me."

Kakashi despaired at his genin. They were not reacting how genin were supposed to react! They never did. Kakashi couldn't wait for the Chuunin Exams. Then he could get them off of his hands, and he wouldn't have to deal with them again unless they went on missions together. He could probably pawn them off on Tenzo a couple of times a week now though. That made him happy.

Sakura sighed loudly, interrupting Kakashi's line of thought. "So, what're we doing today Sensei?"

Kakashi glanced off into the trees. "We're finding a friend of mine. He'll help Naruto with his Mokuton."

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Naruto concentrating on a small tree sapling that had not been there last time. Kakashi's eye twitched. He was so dumping them with Tenzo at least a few times a week.

* * *

Tenzo was happy to take them a couple of times, and they clearly liked him far more than they did Kakashi. It did not escape Kakashi's notice that each time he went to go find Tenzo, and found him in his apartment, there were new little wooden statues lining his shelves. And that wasn't counting the scarf Kakashi had noticed Tenzo had taken to wearing. It was a green crochet with brown fabric lining scarf, clearly his student's work.

* * *

At first, Sakura hadn't really known what to think of Tenzo. He was a bit awkward, and clearly had no experience teaching people, but he was a good shinobi, and didn't only focus on Naruto, despite the fact that technically, he was only there for Naruto. He set her and Sasuke on chakra control exercises first, and once they had displayed mastery of them, tested their elemental affinities. Sasuke had lightning with a minor fire affinity, and Sakura had water. He set them to elemental chakra control exercises after that.

* * *

"What'cha reading Tenzo-sensei?" Sakura asked, startling him slightly, as he hadn't been paying attention.

He tilted the book so she could see. "Iruka-sensei suggested it."

Sakura nodded, dropping down from her spot crouching on the underside of the branch. "Decided to accept that Kakashi is completely useless as a teacher?"

Apparently, the lack of the suffix -sensei did not get past him. "Kakashi-senpai is not used to handling children," he said carefully.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Gosh, I couldn't tell."

Tenzo gave her a flat look for her sarcasm. "Training people who already know the basics and people who still need the basics are two different things. He is used to the first, not the second."

Sakura sighed, placing her hands behind her head and crossing her ankles. "I suppose. And yet, here you are, trying to improve and learn how to teach, and he's sitting across from us in that tree, listening to us and pretending I'm not right."

Tenzo discreetly checked the surrounding area, and there he was. Kakashi was indeed sitting in the tree across from them and listening in.

Sakura snorted softly, standing up. "Well, good luck with the book. If you're wondering, we don't know the shunshin, and would like to learn it." With that, she hopped into a tree, and disappeared into the foliage.

* * *

She met up with Sasuke, Naruto, and Shino a few minutes later. "Sorry I'm late, had a chat with Tenzo-sensei."

"That passive-aggressive talk in front of Kakashi-sensei you've been planning since we met him?" Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sakura smiled innocently. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. Now, were we getting lunch or not? I'm hungry."

"Sure, I believe the Akimichi's barbeque is open today. Why there? Because they do not refuse Naruto."

"And it tastes good!" Sakura chirped in reply, linking her arm through Shino's. "Come! Let us go eat lunch!"

* * *

"Oh! Hey Team Asuma!" Sakura said cheerily, waving.

Shikamaru lifted his head lazily, yawning. "Good morning Sakura."

"It is after noon," Shino noted. "Therefore, the appropriate greeting would be 'Good afternoon, Sakura.'"

Sakura merely chuckled. "You'll just have to excuse him for not knowing the time! With how much he sleeps, I'm surprised he ever knows what time it is!"

Shikamaru just yawned in response.

"Well, good afternoon, Team 7 plus Shino," Asuma said, waving a hand. "Come here for lunch often?"

"Only when one of our parents isn't able to cook," Sakura said, shrugging. "Shibi-sama is busy at a clan head meeting thingy, and his wife dragged my mom to a clan matriarch thing, and my dad has a mission."

"Oh, did he put himself back on the roster?" Asuma asked.

Sakura nodded. "He was planning to do it once I became a genin. Now that I'm a genin, he came out of retirement!"

"Right, well, have a nice lunch," Asuma said, waving.

Naruto waved back for them as they sat down in a relatively nearby booth.

**(A/N) Aww, cuteness. Maybe Kakashi'll be a better teacher now. Or not. Tenzo's way better with kids anyway. Go vote on the poll, kay?**


	7. Chapter 7

**(A/N) Shunshin today. **

"If you guys manage to learn the shunshin by the end of the week, I'll make Kakashi take you on a C-rank," Tenzo said, triumphantly waving a scroll at them.

Naruto looked up from a sapling, Sakura looked up from a water ninjutsu scroll from last week, and Sasuke looked up from carefully carving a tiny dog figurine. "Really?" They chorused.

Tenzo nodded, smiling proudly. "I managed to even get Kakashi to promise with Gai nearby to make sure he keeps it."

Naruto blinked in amazement at his sensei. "Woah."

Sakura grinned, making grabby hands at the scroll. "Faster we learn it, faster we go, right?"

Tenzo nodded, obligingly handing her the scroll and watching with some amusement as the boys abandoned their projects to stare at the scroll.

Sakura blinked at the somewhat vague instructions on the scroll. "Did Kakashi write this?"

Tenzo chuckled sheepishly. "Well, the shunshin isn't exactly the most precise thing. It works a bit different for everyone, so actual written instructions aren't usually very detailed, as opposed to most other jutsu."

Sakura scanned the scroll with a more critical eye, reevaluating the scroll and the instructions therein.

"I, unfortunately, do have a mission for the next two weeks," Tenzo apologized. "So I will not be here to guide you. I apologize, and will have to see you later."

They nodded, understanding that as a wood user, he didn't exactly always have a choice about what missions he was assigned. He shunshined off, and Sakura stood up. "Alright! We have four days to do it, so let's get started!"

"The instructions aren't even recognizable as a jutsu," Sasuke said, taking the scroll from her, turning it every which way as if he thought she'd been reading it upside down.

Naruto plucked it from his fingers neatly, scanning the pages. "You're right, it reads a bit more like a chakra exercise."

"It does?" Sakura asked, taking the scroll from him and looking over it again. "Huh, you're right. It does look like a chakra control exercise."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked, taking the scroll from her.

"Well, it mostly details the fact there's a specific amount of chakra per distance, in addition to a bit about what it does." Sakura pointed to the areas she meant. "Remember? In describing our chakra exercises to us, Tenzo-sensei mostly told us there was a specific amount of chakra for each thing, and how to convert our chakra. Otherwise he said we had to figure it out ourselves because it was different for every person."

"That does make sense," Sasuke agreed, squinting at the scroll. "So, what do we do now?"

"Same thing we did when we had problems with the chakra exercise!" Sakura chirped.

"Work ourselves into the ground?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"No silly, we go ask other people who know the shunshin how they do it!" Sakura said quickly, taking the scroll from Sasuke and tucking it into her pocket. "Come on, we know of at least a few people that know the shunshin."

"Like your parents," Sasuke agreed.

"Jiji should know it," Naruto said, thinking hard as he trailed behind them. "Tou-san and Kaa-san should also know it, being jounin and all."

"Kurenai-sensei and Asuma-sensei should both know it," Sakura added, tapping her leg. "Anyone else we know?"

"Hinata-chan and Kiba's parents," Naruto said, wrinkling his nose. "But we don't know them much."

"My parents have a lot of chuunin friends, some of whom I've met, if only briefly. We can ask about them if we still can't figure it out," Sakura said finally. "We're approaching the Aburame compound, we can start with Shibi-sama and his wife, then move on to my parents, and whoever we can find in between."

Naruto and Sasuke nodded, following her into the Aburame compound.

* * *

"I do know how to do it," Shibi agreed. "Why do you require my input?"

"Our instructions read more like a chakra control exercise, and since last time asking other people how they did it worked out really well, so we're trying it again," Sakura said, smiling.

Shibi inclined his head. "A logical strategy. Alright. I use shunshin as a way to move distances quickly. The leaves are a distraction for the shinobi using it to race away using it. It is, to a degree, something like being squashed through a slightly too small hole when it is used to cover longer distances."

* * *

"Well, I suppose I view it as a sort of power boost," Mebuki said, thinking as she prepared the kids some lunch for their trouble. "It can be used outside of the jutsu, but the jutsu itself makes it a bit more accurate and easy to control."

"Like gathering and spitting water, except with the jutsu it has aim and power behind it?" Sakura hypothesised, making a gesture with her hands to illustrate her point.

"I suppose," Mebuki agreed, ruffling her hair. "My little kid, growing up so fast. It seems like just yesterday you three were running around and causing trouble as little 8-year-olds."

Sasuke groaned. "This being one of the few reasons I am glad to be on the same team as two people I did quite a bit of growing up with…"

"You can't get any more embarrassed by baby picture moments then you were the first four times around," Naruto agreed, sighing and patting his full stomach. "Your mom makes good food, Sakura."

Sakura giggled. "You say that like you don't say it about every time we have lunch over here."

"Which he does," Mebuki volunteered, grinning and ruffling his hair. Naruto tried to fix his messy spikes, even if her ruffling didn't seem to do anything.

* * *

Naruto had somehow managed to convince the secretary that he was here to see his Jiji on very official ninja buisness, and got them into his office. Now that same old man sat smoking his pipe.

"Have you asked many others?" He asked first. "Teamwork is one of Konoha's virtues afterall."

"We asked Shibi-sama, his wife, and my parents. We'll ask Kurenai-sensei and Asuma-sensei about it after you," Sakura said, smiling polietly.

The Hokage smiled kindly. "That seems like it would work just fine, is there a reason you came to me?"

"Well, you taught a team, so you probably taught them the shunshin, and given you have far more experience, we figured asking you was a good idea," Sasuke said, gesturing slightly with his hands.

The Hokage smiled. "Excellent deductive reasoning, Sasuke. Very well. I will inform you as to how each of my students learned the shunshin. Jiraiya mostly refused assistance, trying time and time again until he finally got it, crowing about how it wasn't any more complicated than the seal matrixes he was designing at the time.

"Orochimaru asked me, disappeared for a few days, then came back with a perfect knowledge of how to complete it, spent a day practicing, and had it down by sundown.

"Tsunade, with her near perfect chakra control and medical training, quickly figured out exactly how it worked and had it done within two days."

Naruto screwed up his face. "How does that help?"

The Hokage shrugged. "Perhaps I'm saying you should try it before you question any more people."

Sakura considered that. Perhaps that was a good idea. Very well, they would practice for the rest of the afternoon, and ask Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei tomorrow.

"Alright, see ya jiji." Naruto said, smiling and waving.

The Hokage waved back, and they left.

* * *

"Oww," Sakura groaned, rubbing her head where she'd run into a tree for the fourth time. "Too far. Again."

"Try less chakra," Sasuke called over, then promptly crashed into a tree himself.

"Back at you," Sakura called back, rolling her eyes and walking back to her starting spot. Just a little bit less chakra, then she could have it down.

"I think I got it," Naruto said, shunshining to his tree and not landing in it, crashing into it, or landing several meters away.

"Oh it is on," Sakura hissed, trying to shunshin again.

**(A/N) **_**Ignore me and my theories about the shunshin. **_**To normal buisness, to those also reading Lilo n Stitch, do you care when the Uchiha mess occurs? Like, if it occured in the next few chapters, would you mourn lost opportunities for fluff or something? Also, thoughts on a discord server anyway? Also, are any of you having problems keeping up with the end of year stuff? Like, seriously, we only got a couple of weeks until school ends for me. **


	8. Important

**(A/N) While this seems a somewhat surprising decision, I assure you it is anything but unthought out. I am, I'm afraid, under a lot of stress. I'm sorry I took so long to inform you, but I will be taking the month of June off from updating. I will be back in July, back with properly scheduled updates. Again, I am terribly sorry, I know you were probably looking forward to some updates, but I feel like I need to do this. No, there won't be an update tonight. I am sorry, but will see you again in July. This has been posted on all my stories, I apologize for the sudden slew of emails. **


	9. Chapter 9

**(A/N) Can you tell I know nothing about Interrogation or am I good enough at bluffing to hide it. **

Sakura spotted the puddle first, and she nudged Naruto, bringing his attention to it. "We have some company."

"Oh no," Naruto said loudly, heading straight for the puddle. "A terrible thing here, a puddle when it hasn't rained in weeks! What could it be!"

"A duck?" Sasuke asked boredly. "They're everywhere you know."

"We aren't ducks!" The two enemy shinobi squawked as they leaped out of their puddle, only to be caught in a crossfire from Sakura and Sasuke.

"Tie em up Naruto," Sakura said, tossing him some ninja wire. "I'm sure Tenzo-sensei will be happy to see his interrogation lesson put to good use!" First lesson? Play to your strengths. As all of them were teens, nothing along the romantic route was going to work until they were 18, or at least had filled out somewhat. Because of his Uchiha heritage and resting unimpressed face, Sasuke did best with an 'I know more then you do' air of superiority method. Intimidation was key. Naruto could manage intimidation if he was borrowing Kyuubi's chakra or using Mokuton, both of which were terrifying to normal people. Sakura herself worked bast with a sort of 'I'm an innocent little girl, you can tell me anything' air. That, or 'I may look like a cute little girl, but oh hey look, I know all these ways to kill you slowly and painfully'. The dichotomy of that one was often enough to get the prisoner to spill.

Naruto tied up the enemy shinobi, and while the boys did that, Sakura checked a bingo book for the two.

"Demon brothers from Kiri," she read off quickly. "C-rank at best, chuunin level technically. Not a great bounty, but not too bad for C-rank idiots from Kiri that think they can get away with puddles when it hasn't rained in weeks."

"There aren't even any clouds," Naruto said, sighing mournfully. "Eh, Sakura, dead or alive?"

Sakura checked. "Alive, dead is worth less."

"We are not carting those two to the nearest bounty station," Kakashi sighed. "Dead will have to do. I have body scrolls."

"Alright," Sakura agreed easily. "Dead it is then."

"My turn," Sasuke said immediately, dispatching the demon brothers in two quick movements.

"What did you get from them?" Sakura asked briskly, starting to move everyone along the road.

"Well, they're hired by Gato, head of Gato Industries, and from their stuttered and terrified descriptions, I'm pretty sure we'll be facing the Demon of the Mist, Zabuza Momochi, pretty soon. It was mentioned that they saw a second person with him, although they're not quite sure what this person was." Naruto shrugged, delicately stepping away from the spreading pool of blood.

"Or who," Sasuke agreed. "They seemed cautious of the person though, so we may want to look out for them."

Sakura nodded. "Should Zabuza pop up, we'll have to be on the look out for a second person."

Kakashi idly turned a page in his book. "Should Zabuza appear, you are to leave him to me and not jump in. That would be an order."

Naruto looked hesitant, but nodded quickly.

Sakura frowned at the man, but nodded slowly anyway. Sasuke just grunted.

* * *

Zabuza attacked while they were traveling through wave itself. A giant sword flew over their heads, embedding into a tree, Zabuza Momochi standing on top of it a moment later.

"Zabuza Momochi, we've been expecting you," Kakashi said ominously, standing up.

"I presume the Demon Brothers spilled like the weaklings they are?" Zabuza scoffed, eyeing Sakura and her teammates.

Kakashi stepped in front of them. "They're long dead by now."

"Good riddance," Zabuza said, flicking a hand. "Turning 'em in for a bounty?"

"What else would we do with their heads," Sasuke asked snarkily.

"Oh I like you," Zabuza said, grinning. "Maybe I'll spare you and keep you."

"Fight me," Sasuke replied, sticking his tongue out. "My teammates wouldn't let you. And if we got back in any condition other then just fine, Shino will flip."

Sakura chuckled despite herself. Shino really would flip if they turned up missing a teammate or two.

"Hiding in the Mist jutsu," Zabuza barked, the area beginning to fill quickly with a thick mist.

They gathered around Tazuna while Kakashi went after Zabuza.

"Sasuke, can you see through this mist?" Sakura asked, staring into the mist futilely.

"No, too laced with chakra and stuff," Sasuke replied, glancing at her with eyes red from the Sharingan. "I'm not sure that even a Hyuuga would be able to see him in the mist."

Naruto growled quietly, glaring into the mist. "I don't like it, we can't see where they are, or any attacks that might be coming in." Ah, there was ROOT's training coming into play again. He did this in most battles, strategizing and plotting. He was good at it.

"It looks like the mist might be clearing," Sakura said, glancing around. "I found Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza."

"He's doing the weird copy thing," Sasuke agreed. "Predicting Zabuza's movements before he makes them and copying.

"I mean, it is pretty intimidating to have someone copying your every move precisely." Sakura pointed out. "Tenzo-sensei said this was Kakashi-sensei's favorite intimidation tactic."

"When did he say that?" Sasuke asked, wrinkling his nose.

"During the lesson, a sort of blink and you'll miss it thing. You and Naruto were temporarily distracted by a random flower at the time."

"Your spatial awareness amazes me," Sasuke muttered.

Sakura blocked a stray kunai with one of her own. "Good for you."

Naruto moved next to them, glaring out at the water with red slitted eyes. "What are those the signs to?"

"Some big water jutsu I think," Sasuke said, eyes similarly red, although with three comma marks. "Uh, the water dragon I think, by the number of seals alone. They're at 35 already. If they reach 44 and a water dragon comes up, we have our answer."

"That's a lot of seals," Sakura noted quietly. "Can it be cut down?"

"I think the record is 11, and that was Tobirama Senju, the best water user in the Land of Fire," Sasuke said, squinting. "And that's 44."

"He was one of the best in the Elemental Nations," Naruto muttered, watching Kakashi be trapped in a bubble. "Can't help him, ordered not to."

"We have to," Sakura said. "Wait, he said we couldn't, but he never said anything about shadow clones. I'll need a couple to explain the idea to."

Naruto grinned, all sharp teeth and canines. A sign later and there were four shadow clones ready for action.

Sakura quickly lined them up. "Each of you pick a person, then sneak away. I need it to seem like we're leaving and shadow clones are staying to fight. Naruto can you just pop a bunch to make a smoke screen when I signal you to?"

Naruto nodded, a bunch of clones popping into existence.

"Alright, ready you four? Now!"

Sakura watched as the smoke cloud from the clones popping gave them just enough cover to transform.

"Go," She hissed to the nearest one. "Get going."

So the shadow clones snuck away while the real ones remained in place.

"Send one looking like Kakashi off too," Sakura whispered to Naruto quickly. "As soon as things go down hill, tell your clones to substitute with us in five minutes. If we aren't by then, we'll be fine."

Naruto nodded, and soon a Kakashi was slinking off into the hills.

Sakura smirked, pulling out a few kunai and shuriken. "Sasuke, keep the water clone occupied, I'm going for the main body. Naruto, send support when you can, alright?"

The boys nodded, Sasuke drawing a tanto he was working on learning, and Sakura lunging forward with a water jutsu already on her tongue. "Water Lance!" She spit out several lances, aiming for Zabuza and his wrist in particular. If she could get to Kakashi, she could get him out and the two could continue their battle. Or not, Kakashi looked pretty tired. Looked like they'd have to either try pulling out Naruto's mokuton to win this, or die.

If Kakashi passed out or something, Mokuton was next on the list.

She hurled a couple more water lances, feeling the drain it took from her reserves. She had to be careful to not reach anything anywhere near chakra exhaustion. She was not leaving the boys alone while she recovered. Apparently Kakashi had other ideas.

* * *

**(A/N) Random interlude for commenter! I couldn't reach it this chapter, so this'll appear again, so count this as a sneak peek for the next chapter. **

Sakura eyed Kakashi and his crutches. "Teach us something useful for when Zabuza comes back or I look up how to switch jounin sensei and swap you out for Tenzo-sensei."

"She'll do it," Sasuke offered.

"And succeed," Naruto agreed.

Kakashi eyed them all cautiously. "Fine. Lets go learn something.

**(A/N) With that taken care of, I have a poll up, ends next week, please go vote. Have a good existence! **


	10. Chapter 10

**(A/N) Kakashi's underweight and can't eat properly to save his life, fight me on it. **

Kakashi had passed out after the battle. Y'know, like an idiot.

"He is not as heavy as he should be," Sakura grunted, heaving Kakashi along with Sasuke under Kakashi's other arm. "I know I shouldn't be complaining, but he really should eat better."

"We'll have to try and remind him to eat better when he wakes up," Sasuke allowed, staggering along.

Naruto, who had Kakashi's legs, groaned. "Is the house close at least?"

"Just up ahead," Tazuna said, somewhat nervously. Sakura eyed the woods suspiciously. There weren't more bandits and/or missing ninja, were there?

A woman opened the door, looking somewhat appalled at Sakura and her team carrying the passed out Kakashi. "Father! You didn't! Come in, come in, there's an empty room upstairs you can put him in."

So they lugged their sensei into the house and up the stairs. Naruto dropped his feet in favor of setting out his bedroll, and they put him on that, then went downstairs.

Tsunami had set about cooking a meal, so they obligingly sat at the table. Naruto got up to set the table after a few moments, going through the cupboards to find the plates and silverware.

Dinner was eaten in relative silence, other then Tsunami's brat glaring at them the entire meal, which obviously made Naruto uncomfortable, despite Sakura and Sasuke's efforts to block the brat's view of Naruto.

* * *

Sakura cornered him after dinner was over, and Naruto had disappeared up into the provided room. "What's your problem, brat."

"You're all going to fail, and then leave us to the mercy of Gato," he snapped at her. "You're just wannabes who don't know what we're going through!"

Sakura hummed quietly. She would handle this like an adult, she would not strangle the brat for assuming things falsely. "I'm afraid I'll have to disagree. Sasuke lost his clan at eight years old, Naruto was kidnapped at the same age for over two months. So I'll have to tell you to buzz off and not judge a book by its cover. Don't assume a lack of trauma if you're too wrapped up in your own to see the signs of it in others." Yes, that would do. She turned and strode away, leaving the brat there. She had boys to get back to.

"The brat's been taken care of," she noted absently when she got back, settling down carefully on her own bedroll.

"You didn't traumatize him too badly?" Sasuke checked.

"Nah," Sakura said, shaking her head. "He'll be fine." He would, she hadn't even threatened him too badly. She could make up some pretty creative threats. Knowing a Yamanaka and being engaged to an Aburame did that to you.

"Please don't traumatize the client's grandson," Naruto pleaded. "Even if he deserves it."

"So you do admit he deserves it," Sakura said, pointing at him.

"I do not," Naruto disagreed, shaking his head and putting his hands up. "He is the client's grandson."

Sakura just snickered, settling down in her bedroll. "Let's just hope Kakashi wakes up soon, we can't face Zabuza on our own." She crossed her arms beneath her head. "Idiot, passing out from chakra exhaustion, what if he hadn't managed to hold off until Zabuza was taken by that fake hunter-nin."

"Let's hold off on the scolding until he's awake," Sasuke noted tiredly. "Please."

"Alright, alright," Sakura said, yawning. "I'll wait until he wakes up."

* * *

"And for another thing!" Sakura continued, having been at this for a couple minutes already. "You need to eat better, you're far too thin! It won't do to have you wasting away, since that certainly won't help your chakra reserves, let alone your health, especially when you have a severe inability to go to any hospital for assistance!"

Sasuke was sitting off to the side and munching on a snack while Sakura chewed Kakashi out for his poor health. Naruto was off hunting to take some of the burden off of Tazuna and their income. A good thing, really, Sakura was really going at Kakashi.

"Maybe Tenzo can't get you to take care of yourself, but you had dang better bet that we're going to try our hardest! Maybe you'll do us a favor and actually teach us something for once." Finally satisfied, Sakura sat back on her heels, and took a drink of water. "Tsunami-san has leftovers from breakfast saved. You'd better go down and eat them."

Kakashi quickly excused himself, hopefully to do as Sakura ordered.

She sighed, flopping backwards onto her bedroll. "I swear, sensei is a nightmare."

"He's also our sensei," Sasuke pointed out logically.

"I bet Shino doesn't have these problems with his sensei," Sakura complained, placing her arm across her forehead. "His sensei seemed nice when I met her, and he's been learning a lot apparently."

"If you say so," Sasuke agreed absently, starting to sharpen his weapons.

"Naruto should be back soon, right? Maybe we can convince Kakashi-sensei to actually teach us something when he gets back."

"Wishful thinking, but maybe," Sasuke told her.

"Leave me and my wishful thinking alone," Sakura said, flapping a hand at him.

* * *

"Who are you?" Naruto asked the random person collecting flowers curiously. He was cautious, leaving the dead squirrel with the kunai still embedded in it in his hand.

The person seemed to startle, glancing over at him. Since they didn't scream at the sight of the squirrel, Naruto decided they were probably a shinobi. Given the fact they weren't Zabuza, he'd go with the fake hunter-nin. Maybe the flowers were medicinal?

"Hello," the person said, their voice soft. "I don't believe I recognize you, are you from around here?"

Naruto shrugged. "Visiting for a while."

"I am visiting as well," the person agreed. "There are many good medicinal plants around here, like this flower. I have a hobby of collecting plants like this."

"Could come in handy one day," Naruto half agreed. It would, but only if you could use the plants.

The person hummed quietly, filling their basket. When they were done, they stood up. "I believe I'll take my leave. Can't leave these alone too long before pressing them."

Naruto inclined his head, bending down to pick up a flower to tuck away and ask Sakura to identify later.

"And by the way," the person spoke as they were leaving. "I'm a boy."

Naruto hadn't bothered to assume gender, but it was nice to know the person's gender. He didn't quite have enough game, so he'd collect a bit more before going to the house though. Maybe Kakashi-sensei was awake.

**(A/N) Whelp, there's Haku. Kinda ending of wave next time, so there's that. Happy Birthday to Sasuke Uchiha, and have a good existence. **


	11. Chapter 11

**(A/N) Zabuza, here we are. Also, wild Kakashi pov. **

Sakura greeted Naruto when he got back. "How'd it go?"

"Well, I met a weird person," Naruto said, shrugging. "I'm 95% sure he's that fake hunter-nin."

Sakura blinked at him. "Your lack of self-preservation worries me occasionally. Alright, ignoring that, did he realize you were going to probably be at the final battle for the bridge?"

"I'm not sure," Naruto admitted. "He didn't seem to? But he could just be a good actor."

Sakura hummed quietly. "Alright. Let's avoid going out alone until the battle, alright? Not that I don't trust anyone's ability to escape or fight someone."

"Course not," Naruto agreed.

She smiled softly at him, then turned to finish cleaning the wall.

"What happened there?" Naruto asked as she finished up.

"Oh, not much, Kakashi came down and startled the brat enough that he ended up splattering some food everywhere. I'm just helping clean it up!"

Naruto scoffed quietly, pulling out the sealing scroll of meat. "Well, he'd better be grateful. You haven't even threatened him properly yet."

"Maybe later," Sakura hummed, putting away the cleaning supplies. "Did you see Sasuke on your way in? I think he was attempting to fish?"

"I didn't," Naruto said, shaking his head. "I can go check for him now if you want. Where is Kakashi-sensei?"

"Keeping an eye on Tazuna and the bridge," Sakura replied easily. "And yes, please do. It's getting close to dinner time, and I'd like to know if he caught anything."

"I'll collect Kakashi-sensei in an hour, is that good?" Naruto asked, already halfway out the door.

"Yep, thank you Naruto." Sakura grinned at him, turning away to locate Tsunami and see what else she could do.

* * *

Kakashi was bored, which was something of an oddity for him lately. His students were certainly capable of keeping him on his toes. Currently, Sasuke was attempting to do the age-old Uchiha 'fireball to the water' method of fishing. It was significantly more effective in ponds and places you could actually boil the water well enough to fry the fish.

Despite the odds against him, Sasuke had managed to catch a couple of fish, frying them and scooping them off the surface of the water.

As far as Kakashi knew, Naruto was hunting, and Sakura was helping around the house and protecting Tsunami and the brat. Had Kakashi forgotten the brat's name? Yes. Did he care to remember it? No.

He was getting somewhat antsy, knowing Zabuza would be up at any point kind of did that, and having the kids separated was getting to him.

Oh look, here came Naruto now, he wasn't injured, and didn't look frantic as he ran up to Sasuke to chat. When the fish were shown off, it became clear why Naruto was here, as he sent a shadow clone with the fish back to the house.

Sakura must have sent Naruto out here. Really, sometimes it seemed like she was the sensei of the team, not him.

Sometimes it could be somewhat of a good thing, it allowed the three to act independently of him, and not have any issue with not having him around to give orders. On the other hand, the three were highly independent and prone to disobedience in minor situations. If really pressed they'd obey, but only if it was important. And by blood, they knew when it was important and when it wasn't. Which was somewhat infuriating at times.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted up to him. "Sakura says dinner's in an hour!"

Kakashi nodded absently, attempting to look engrossed in his book. A nice fantasy book this time, albeit wrapped in a cover from the set of Icha Icha books he did in fact own, but didn't read often.

"We'll come to get you then!" Naruto shouted up to him again, tugging Sasuke back to shore.

And Kakashi was sure they would. Very loudly. But to be fair, that was kind of his own fault for sitting on top of one of the pillars holding up the bridge. They thought they had to yell for him to hear.

...Maybe he should inform them of his heritage and introduce them to his dogs. Might make it easier. Might completely destroy his position as their sensei and Sakura'd go through with her threat to swap him out. Which scared him more then he was willing to admit.

* * *

Sasuke sharpened his kunai absently as he perched on the roof of the house. He was here to ensure no one got into the house with the intention to kill or kidnap Tsunami or the brat, even if currently it was a bit boring. No one had come by, but that didn't mean they wouldn't.

Sakura had predicted that they would likely only send one set of people to fetch Tsunami and the brat, as they were somewhat overconfident. Although Sasuke should still attempt a minor interrogation of the people to make sure.

And there they were. Common thugs clearly, would probably break easily under some pressure.

Sasuke jumped down behind them, silently following them into the house.

Once inside, Sasuke knocked one out with a swift blow to the head, and the other was caught up in one of the traps he'd laid down.

"So," Sasuke said, smirking. "Shall we have some fun?" He cracked his knuckles threateningly, and apparently the man was so weak-willed, that was all it took.

"There's no one else!" He squawked immediately. "We only want the woman and the brat for leverage!"

Sasuke hadn't even asked a question yet. Jeez, so unprofessional of the man. "Right. And how do I know you're telling the truth?" He was fairly sure the man was, but hey, couldn't hurt to ask.

The man's mouth flapped like a fish out of water for a moment. "I-I guess you don't? But I wouldn't lie, promise!"

"Oh?" Sasuke asked, eyeing the man disdainfully. "I'm not so sure. You're lowlife and would do anything to save your own skin."

"I promise!" He squawked. "I-I'll do anything! I'm telling the truth!"

"Then what gender is the fake hunter-nin?" Sasuke asked smirking.

The man looked so confused. "I have no clue?"

Sasuke snickered internally. "He's a boy," he told the man in pity before knocking him out. Looked like he was waiting here. His friends could handle themselves anyway. Naruto's mokuton was still a card not shown, so they had the advantage. He wouldn't doubt his friend's ability. And with Kakashi to hold Zabuza at bay, it was two on one.

**(A/N) Trip back, some meetings, and what happened while Sasuke was torturing evil men next time. For now, have a nice existence! **


	12. Chapter 12

**(A/N) The Chuunin exams have arrived! It's probably a problem I keep forgetting which story this is and mixing it up with SHT7, huh?**

"I've nominated you three for the chuunin exams!" Kakashi said, eye smiling.

"Under heavy protest from me, might I add," Tenzo said, looking somewhat salty.

"_I've_ nominated you for the chuunin exams," Kakashi repeated, staring at Tenzo, who stared at him, clearly somewhat annoyed.

"Thanks!" Sakura chirped, taking the slips of paper from him. "What are we doing today?"

"Just practice what you already know," Kakashi said dismissively, disappearing soon after.

Tenzo sighed deeply. "Naruto, I'll spar with you. Just mokuton. Sakura, Sasuke, throw fire and water at each other I guess. Take turns with the fire."

* * *

"And who are you?" Sasuke asked skeptically.

At the lack of answer, Sakura took it upon herself to answer. "They're genin from Suna I would assume by their head protectors. Here for the upcoming Chuunin Exams. They're a bit early though," she eyed them, then the child they'd bumped into. "Perhaps they should have thought to remain in their hotel room instead of running around and bullying the Hokage's grandson." She did her best to appear aloof and somewhat all-knowing, figuring it couldn't hurt to make an intimidating first impression.

The female genin eyed her appreciatively. "Good to know Konoha has at least a few good female genin."

Sakura lifted her chin just a smidge, standing under the weight of the clearly older genin's gaze. "Sakura. Of Team 7."

"Temari," she returned. "The idiot's Kankuro."

Sakura inclined her head. "My teammates are Sasuke and Naruto. Do you not have a third teammate?"

"He's not here," Kankuro said, too quickly.

Sakura hummed doubtfully. "Alright. I would still advise going back to your hotel. Wouldn't want the ANBU to think you have...intentions against the village." Mildly threatening. Maybe it'd make them go away. Sakura, unlike some other people she knew (cough cough Kakashi cough cough), had things to do with her life.

Kankuro opened his mouth but was quickly shut up by a dry voice. "Kankuro stop. You're embarrassing us."

"G-Gaara!" Kankuro stuttered.

Gaara appeared on the ground from his tree with a sand shunshin. "Let's go. Before you embarrass yourself and us further."

"Amen," Temari muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes.

Sakura snorted quietly.

* * *

"You losers wouldn't make it in the chuunin exams," the henged person said triumphantly, arms folded.

"He says as he isn't actually a genin," Sakura whispered to the other two.

"I think they're Izumo and Kotetsu. Y'know, the gate guard people?" Naruto eyed the two apparent chuunin.

"I can see that," Sasuke agreed.

"Me too," Sakura said. "Now the question. Why is that Hyuuga and what looks like the student of Maito Gai, pretending to be completely incompetent."

"They'd pull off intimidation better," Sasuke muttered. "Although the girl could pull off incompetent then pull out whatever she can do. Probably something long-range. To go along with her close-combat teammates."

"Makes sense," Naruto decided. "Let's go! I wanna make it on time. Unlike Kakashi-sensei."

Sakura snorted. "Yeah, can't have anyone accusing us of picking up on his habits."

* * *

"A good thing that you three are here!" Kakashi said, meeting them right outside of the room. "Or else you wouldn't have been able to participate!"

"You say that like any of us had any doubt we'd be participating," Sasuke pointed out.

"Which we didn't," Naruto added quickly. "Not even after we ran into that creepy Suna team!"

Kakashi gave them skeptical looks, but stepped aside, quickly disappearing into the shadows.

They entered the room to a fair level of chaos. Two other teams from their year, Teams 8 and 10, were standing and looking around awkwardly.

"Hey," Sakura said, waving slightly.

Shino nodded to her. "Sakura. I trust you have been well?"

"We saw each other this morning," Sakura pointed out. "But yes. Been training hard?"

Shino inclined his head. "Indeed. I trust Kakashi has been as usual?" He looked almost amused, and Sakura sighed.

"Yeah, as usual indeed." She shook her head. "Almost made us late getting in here."

"Which would've been bad," Naruto volunteered.

"Very," Shino deadpanned.

"Listen up maggots!" Ibiki barked. Sakura remembered him from when Naruto went missing. A rather intimidating man. Especially when you were eight years old. "Sit down and no lollygagging!"

Sakura quickly located her seat, settling into it. A paper test. Not difficult, especially for her. Sasuke knew how to cheat, and Naruto would either cheat somehow, or puzzle through it on his own. Either would work.

"The tenth question will be released in the final ten minutes of the test, and any cheating means you will be deducted two points," Ibiki instructed. "Begin!"

Sakura flipped over her test. Oh, math problems. And there was a history problem one had to either be obsessed with the second and third wars or just know a lot about Uzushio to answer. Sakura barely knew the name, let alone what kind of defenses it used. Although from what she could remember, its name wasn't in most history books. You had to really look in the back corners of the library to find it. She could spot Sasuke casually cheating, although the chuunin lining the room either had seen it, or deemed it good enough to pass. Naruto was just struggling it seemed.

"Now, you can choose to receive the final question or not. If you answer it incorrectly, you will be removed from this chuunin exam, and all after it. If you leave now, you still have a chance at taking the exam next year."

Sakura raised an eyebrow at him. Her team was plenty stubborn to pass, and besides, Ibiki couldn't stop other villages from allowing them to take the chuunin exams. At best he could prevent the Konoha genin from ever doing it, but other villages genin? No.

And sure enough, it was all a logical ruse. Of course. Almost worse then Kakashi's in that this actually eliminated a lot of people, cutting the group by over half. Oh well, those people could try again next year. Now, the remaining teams had a second round to complete.

**(A/N) Ah, troubles ensue when I can't remember which story this is or what I'm supposed to be doing. I remembered this time, don't worry. **


	13. Chapter 13

**(A/N) Us: Packing. Me: Casually keeping up with my update schedule. **

Sakura debated attempting to glare down the massive forest. It wouldn't work, but it might make her feel better.

"Don't glare at the trees," Naruto said, nudging her. "They didn't do anything wrong."

"It's the forest of death," Sasuke pointed out. "I'm sure at least one of the trees has killed someone."

"It has an apt name," Sakura agreed.

"They still don't deserve it," Naruto said firmly.

"Alright, alright, I won't glare at them," Sakura sighed, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "But still, we have to get another scroll, and then get to the tower without dying."

"We'll be fine," Sasuke told her. "We got you, and me, and Naruto."

"We're part of a team, of course we have all three of us," Naruto deadpanned. "I'd be worried if we didn't."

* * *

"I'm almost surprised we haven't been attacked yet," Sakura remarked.

"Well I need to go to the bathroom, so try not to get attacked while I'm gone," Naruto said, pointing at them. "I'll grow a few saplings when I come back so you know it's me."

Sakura and Sasuke nodded in confirmation, settling down to wait.

"So did we meet any of Team Gai before becoming genin?" Sasuke wondered. "I cannot for the life of me remember. They feel familiar though."

"I know I've seen Gai around the village," Sakura hummed. "And Tenten works in a weapons shop sometimes, other than that, I don't think so. And other than random glances of course."

Sasuke grunted in reply, staring after Naruto.

"I suppose you might have seen Lee while practicing, or maybe Neji at some party? But those are kind of not exactly secure." Sakura shrugged.

"Right," Sasuke said, staring suspiciously at the forest. "I think someone's coming back."

Sakura watched in mild amusement as someone that clearly wasn't Naruto, based on the lack of new saplings growing around them, sauntered into the clearing.

"So, are we gonna go guys?" He asked, looking all the world like he thought he'd gotten away with it.

"How cute," Sakura remarked. "You think you got away with it."

"Whadda guys mean?" He asked.

"Well there's a couple of things," Sasuke agreed. "For one, Naruto wears his kunai pouch on the other side."

"And for another thing, he stopped using language like that a long time ago," Sakura agreed. "And you didn't do the thing."

"The thing?" The imposter asked cautiously.

"Something only he can do," Sakura confirmed, trying to sound vaguely mystic.

The imposter looked horrified, although still hadn't dropped his henge.

"Hand over your scroll and we'll be gentle in knocking you out," Sasuke bargained, standing up and brushing off his shirt.

Sakura stood up as well, flicking her ponytail over her shoulder. "Maybe. If Naruto's too injured we might wake you up again to knock you out more painfully however."

The expression of horror and fear was rather out of place on Naruto's face, and the henge quickly poofed away as the now known as an Ame genin scrambled to pull out his scroll.

Almost half a second later, it was out, and Sakura walked up to take it from him. He dropped it into her hand and turned to flee, but she knocked him out with a neat blow to the back of his neck. He dropped like a stone.

"I did knock him out quickly," Sakura said, kicking him to make sure he was out. "Should we go find Naruto, or wait for him."

"Naruto'll be fine," Sasuke decided. "He's not a pansy."

Sakura snorted.

Sure enough, Naruto came out a moment later, flowers blooming at his feet. Tree saplings sprouted quickly in the clearing, reaching bush status moments later. "Hey guys! Sorry I took so long, had to deal with some idiots. One escaped, did you see him?"

Sakura kicked the unconscious Ame genin again. "Yep, we found him. He was even nice enough to give us his scroll before passing out because of mysterious circumstances."

Naruto eyed the genin, then the kunai in her hand. "Mysterious indeed. Let's go, we have to get to the tower now."

* * *

The first indication that something was wrong was the lack of any animals around them. Of course, the massive wind jutsu that tried to blow them away was also a very good indicator, but they were supposed to look underneath the underneath.

"That is not a genin," Sakura whispered to Naruto and Sasuke, sensing the KI attempting to pin them in place. Luckily for them, they'd faced worse. Well, maybe not worse, but close enough.

"Kukuku, aren't you a smart one," the not-genin crooned at them, appearing properly.

Sakura blinked somewhat tiredly at the not-genin. "Do I really want to deal with you today?"

"You don't get a choice," he replied promptly.

"I know," Sakura sighed.

While his attention had been on her, the boys had snuck around him, wood springing up under his feet to capture him, a fireball following in an instant.

Sakura almost felt bad for killing him, then quickly realized he was far from dead when a perfectly intact Orochimaru crawled out of the charred body. Yeah she was no longer sorry for any attempts at murder.

"Kukuku," he looked almost pleased, his neck lengthening creepily.

"I don't like you," Naruto declared from somewhere off to Orochimaru's left.

"Ditto!" Sasuke shouted in agreement.

Sakura made a valiant effort to snort and sigh at the same time.

* * *

It was over in an instant. Orochimaru was too fast for any of them, the pretty much untrained genin that they were.

Even with his neck attached as it was, all long and weird, he still managed to sink his fangs into Sasuke's neck and do something to Naruto's stomach that knocked him out. Sakura was oddly left alone, but she wasn't part of any clan and didn't have any sort of bloodline.

Oh well, she was going to be grateful for what she got. She was awake and alive after an encounter with Orochimaru, if low on chakra. She could carry her teammates and find a sufficiently defendable place until they woke up. Or if they didn't wake up in enough time, make the trek to the tower with them still out.

She managed to toss both over her shoulders like particularly large and heavy sacks of potatoes, and get moving. On the ground, and slowly, but it was better than nothing.

**(A/N) You'd think I'd remember how the Orochimaru fight goes. You'd be wrong. **


	14. Chapter 14

(A/N) End of the second exam and prelims. This is my last WBBU update before November and NanoWrimo, so see you in like a month and a half!

Sakura finally came upon a dry cave that was sufficient enough for her to set Naruto and Sasuke down inside. She dragged down vines to hide the entrance. It wouldn't do to have someone come upon them and find them.

She couldn't sleep yet, so she took a chakra pill and ate a ration bar. She'd have to keep watch until one of the boys woke up. She could go a day or two without sleeping, she'd live. Wouldn't be fun, but this entire exam wasn't meant to be fun.

* * *

Hours later, and she heard people approaching. She stood up, readying a kunai.

It was a sound team. Not with Orochimaru, but still.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, raising the kunai. "Get out."

"Why would we," the leader scoffed, raising his arm, which was mostly covered in a massive grey thing made of metal. Sakura didn't think she liked that, as it was clearly a threat.

She dove to the ground as sound ripped over her head. She pulled earplugs from her bag, a last resort in case either boy started snoring when she was trying to sleep, and stuffed them in her ears. It may not be perfect, but it'd have to help at least slightly.

She lunged for the leader, dodging a senbon from the girl and what looked like a blast of air from the other boy.

The leader yelled something, probably about his arm thingy, and Sakura sensed the sound more than heard it. The earplugs were working.

Now that she'd bypassed his primary weapon, Sakura went for his legs, knocking them out from under him and faceplanting him in the dirt.

She lodged a kunai in his weapon thingy, hopefully breaking it, struck the back of his head precisely in the way Tenzo-sensei had shown them on a few of Naruto's clones to knock him out, then lunged for the boy with the air. He was the biggest threat right now.

When she'd finished with him, she ended up breaking his arms to stop the air, then knocking him out, the girl had been taken out by a clearly newly awakened Sasuke.

A good half of his visible skin was covered by black markings, and he was staring at his hands in confusion as the marks turned red and disappeared onto his shoulder.

"What was that?" Sakura asked after a long moment.

"I don't think I want to know," Sasuke replied, looking mildly sick. "But we're telling Tenzo-sensei as soon as we get back. I did not like that."

"Noted," Sakura said, nudging the girl with her foot to make sure she was out. "Let's grab Naruto and sprint for the tower. We have what we need, I'm not spending another three days in here. Let's get out while we can."

"Yeah," Sasuke agreed, still staring weirdly at his hands.

* * *

Naruto woke up halfway to the tower, wriggling awkwardly in the hold Sasuke had him in, which was slung over his shoulder like a sack of bricks.

"Oi! Lemme down!" Naruto squawked, clearly only half awake.

"Wake up properly and I'll consider it," Sasuke said, grinning as he spotted the tower.

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief as it came into view. She was ready to crash for twelve hours. Not any longer because longer than that was a coma and she refused to leave the boys unsupervised for longer than that.

"I'll put you down when we hit the tower," Sasuke bargained. "It's right there."

Naruto huffed, but settled down. "Fine."

"Thank you," Sakura said, quickly scanning the ground for traps. It wouldn't do for them to be caught unawares.

* * *

They were doing preliminaries. Because of course, they were. Why not?

"Destroy him," Sakura told Sasuke in no uncertain terms as his matchup was displayed. "We show no mercy."

Sasuke smirked, nodding.

Sakura grinned, following Naruto and Kakashi up into the stands.

Sasuke destroyed the other genin, of course, and he joined them up in the stands, the other genin carted out on a stretcher.

* * *

Sakura narrowed her eyes upon seeing her opponent. Ino. She didn't know what the other girl had been learning, so she quickly put her hair up into a somewhat messy bun. It'd hold for the match. She couldn't afford to leave her hair open to be grabbed as she usually did, although she was usually fast enough to not have that be a risk, she simply didn't know what Ino was capable of right now.

Ino had the backing of a clan, had it her whole life. Sakura was civilian born, her greatest asset being betrothed to the Aburame clan's heir. She had her team at her back, and she would beat Ino, fair and square.

She noticed Ino leaving her hair down, and resolved to pull it at least once. Maybe it'd remind her that long hair can be grabbed.

There was a reason that long hair was designated a 'powerful shinobi' trait. All three of the sannin had long hair, although she knew Jiraiya used his for a few jutsu, Orochimaru and Tsunade likely just wore theirs long to show off.

* * *

"She absolutely deserved that hair pull." Sasuke deadpanned as she rejoined them.

"Oh yeah," Sakura agreed, snickering. "Oh well, maybe she'll take it a bit more seriously now."

"Long hair is a liability," Naruto agreed solemnly.

"Looks like you're up next," Sakura noted.

"I feel mildly sorry for Kiba," Sasuke admitted, only to shrug. "Oh well, his loss. Go get him. Him and his tiny dog."

"Akamaru really is so tiny for a nin-dog right now," Sakura agreed, laughing. "So tiny!"

"HEY!" Kiba squawked, having apparently heard her. "He's a perfectly good size!"

"Sure, keep telling yourself that!" Sakura shot back, grinning down at him.

(A/N) Ah, I hate writing fights. Watch me skip em all, haha.


	15. Chapter 15

**(A/N) Hello! Miss me? We are movin on now! The end is in sight. There's this chapter, then one after it. Probably. We'll see. **

Sakura was only slightly salty about being left to her own devices while Sasuke got borrowed by Kakashi and Naruto was taken by Tenzo. Only slightly she swears. Shino, Hinata, and Kiba were all being individually trained by their sensei even though only one of them had made it into the final round.

So she hung out with their team, learning genjutsu from Kurenai, a lot in how to break them, plus the hell viewing technique, the one Kakashi sometimes liked to use. It was a fun one to do.

"Sakura," Shino requested after breaking out of the genjutsu. "Please do not, I don't appreciate seeing three fourths of my hive destroyed, even if it isn't real."

"Okay, okay, I can be done practicing now," Sakura sighed reluctantly.

"Thank you." Shino said in the tone that meant he was sighing with relief. Sakura grinned at him in return.

"Hey, Kurenai-sensei, we almost done?" Sakura called over to her temporary teacher.

Kurenai nodded to her. "Yes Sakura, we can be done as soon as Kiba finishes learning this. You may go, however."

"Cool, thanks!" Sakura said, waving. "Come on Shino, Mom wants our help with dinner! She won't tell me what it is, just that you'll like it."

"Wonderful," Shino said dryly, following her out. "Have a good day, Kurenai-sensei."

"You as well," she replied before turning back to supervising Kiba.

The rest of the month passed similarly, although Sakura saw Sasuke maybe twice the entire time. She assumed he was camping out with Kakashi or something. Either way, it was kind of dumb. Both her parents and Shino's parents were fairly worried, despite having been warned before hand.

At least Tenzo returned Naruto each night, even if they wandered off into the Forest of Death during the day.

Sasuke didn't end up showing up for the chuunin exams finals on time. Sakura was ready to strangle Kakashi. It had to be his fault.

Tenzo had been drafted into being an ANBU watcher, so while they knew vaguely where he was, Sakura had learned rudimentary sensing and could sense sort of where he was, they didn't see him.

"He'll be fine," Sakura said, although she wasn't sure who she was reassuring. "He's got all the stored up rage from Neji beating up Hinata and a month's worth of actually good training from Tenzo."

"I don't doubt it," Shino said mildly. "While Hinata has been recovering well, and is expected to be fully healed in the next week or so, he hasn't exactly been keeping tabs on that."

"He also isn't going to let it slide anyway," Sakura agreed, snickering. "No matter if the person can heal or not. They got hurt, therefore revenge must be taken."

"What is it with Shinobi and revenge?" Shino sighed quietly. "It'd illogical and ridiculous."

Sakura shrugged. "Eh, it's something besides our trauma to focus on. And it isn't moping at a stone attempting to atone or some bs like that."

Shino hummed in agreement, knowing full well who she was referencing there. Kakashi, of course. He may not be there, but that didn't stop Sakura from taking digs at him. Hadn't before and wouldn't now.

"Is it just me or does the sand team look kind of nervous?" Sakura asked him under her breath, making sure the other team didn't hear.

Shino cast a speculative glance their way. They didn't seem to notice. "I would say so, yes. They can't just be nervous for their matches."

"Yeah," Sakura agreed, turning her attention to the match. She still kept an eye on the Suna team. "It does leave me slightly worried."

"We'll likely find out soon enough," Shino pointed out. "Naruto's almost finished kicking Neji's backend into next week."

Sakura snorted. "Yeah, almost done. Five, four, three, two-" she was cut off by an offended squawk by the Hyuuga as he was pinned by branches. "One."

The proctor called it. "Naruto Uzumaki has won."

"He doesn't look even remotely happy," Sakura snickered.

"Watch out, he is coming back up here," Shino warned. "And I have to go to my match."

"You'll do wonderful," she replied, patting his shoulder. "Have fun!"

Shino inclined his head to her, stepping away to head down into the arena.

"Hey Naruto!" She greeted her teammate cheerily.

"Is Sasuke still not here?" Naruto asked her instead.

Sakura gave him a very unimpressed look, but went along with it. "Nope. He should appear before his match though. At least I hope so anyway."

"He'd better," Naruto muttered.

"I'll help you kick Kakashi's butt into next month if he doesn't," Sakura promised. "And rope Tenzo and Sasuke into it."

"Ask Gai to help," Naruto said, smirking.

Sakura pushed at his face. "Do not make that face, it looks creepy."

Naruto batted fruitlessly at her arm, his words muffled slightly by her hand. "Okay, okay, fine! I won't make the face!"

"Thank you," she replied, removing her hand from his face before he could lick it. She'd had that happen enough thank you. And not only by him. Kiba had done it enough times as well. Sasuke had even done it once. She was beginning to accept that everyone would probably do it at some point.

"Did he just forfeit?" Naruto asked, sounding horrified.

Sakura turned her attention to the match quickly. Kankuro had just forfeited. Shino looked angry, which Sakura understood. He'd been jipped of a fight. And one he'd been looking forward to. "Okay that was incredibly rude," Sakura huffed. "Shino's been looking forward to this fight all month."

Naruto started glaring daggers at Kankuro, even as Temari and Shikamaru left to do their match.

Shino joined them by the railing. "The next time we meet, it will be in battle," he said, mildly ominously.

Sakura patted his shoulder. "You do that."

"Thanks," he said dryly.

"Welcome!" She chirped in response.

**(A/N) First part of the final exams! There are a lot of slots on my update schedule open, so here's the link to the poll for that! /27wYJyJei3QmmfLU8**


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